


Dungeon Debacle

by StardustAndAsh



Series: Wild Life [2]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Bonding, Dungeon Crawl, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mipha's Grace (Legend of Zelda), oops wild dies again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:55:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23330515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StardustAndAsh/pseuds/StardustAndAsh
Summary: When Wild shifts with the others to a new Hyrule for the very first time, he and Twilight find themselves separated from the others in the middle of a dungeon. When a wallmaster and Wild's self-sacrificial tendencies get mixed up, well, I think you can guess where this story is going.
Relationships: Twilight & Wild (Linked Universe)
Series: Wild Life [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1642186
Comments: 14
Kudos: 757





	Dungeon Debacle

**Author's Note:**

> This is a follow up to Enter the Wild, but can be read by itself! the only points to note from that story is that Wild just met the rest of them, and that he hasn't defeated Calamity Ganon yet.

The first shift caught Wild by surprise. One minute he was sitting with the others watching Farosh rise out of Lake Hylia, the next he was stranded with only one of the others in an unfamiliar stone hallway. Torchlight flickered along the walls, though Wild noted there was quite a bit of darkness between the one he and the other Link stood under and the next.

His solitary companion was one of the taller ones, not that it said much. Wild was one of the shortest of the bunch. Twilight, Wild was fairly certain this one was called Twilight. The thick wolf pelt on his back and large sword at his side screamed that Twilight was a fighter, but there was something in the way he carried himself that put Wild at ease.

Wild watched him curiously. Twilight seemed largely uninterested in Wild’s presence and was instead scanning the darkness with a strange intensity. Strangely, Wild thought he heard Twilight sniffing at the air. It was too quiet to tell for sure, but nonetheless it was bizarre. Though Wild had to admit, he probably did strange things as well. He hadn’t really spent a lot of time around people since waking up, he had no idea what was considered weird.

“Did you see any of the others?” asked Twilight, jolting Wild from his thoughts.

Wild shook his head and signed, _“Is being separated from everyone unusual?”_

“No, but it doesn’t happen often,” replied Twilight. “And I don’t think any of us have ended up in a structure before. Feels kinda ominous in here.”

Wild felt the seeds of worry taking root in his belly. Maybe it was him. He wasn’t a hero like the others, they’d made a mistake asking him to join. He should have stayed, tried to get into the castle again, guardians be damned. Zelda was waiting for him.

He hardly noticed his breathing getting faster and faster until Twilight rested a gentle hand on his shoulder. Wild jerked away instinctively, one hand going for his sword before remembering the Legend incident and stopping halfway through the motion.

“Hey, it’s okay. I’ve been through a few dungeons on my adventures, we got this,” said Twilight calmly. He didn’t acknowledge the fact that Wild had flinched away from him, for which Wild was grateful.

 _“Dungeon?”_ asked Wild.

“Yeah. Creepy places, usually full of monsters and puzzles, with some kind of prize at the end, like knowledge or treasure,” explained Twilight.

Wild nodded. _“Like Shrines, but they aren’t so dark. And the only enemies in them are guardians.”_

“Sure,” Twilight shrugged and reached out to try and take the torch off the wall. “Well, now that we’re in here, we have nothing else to do but go forward.”

The torch, it seemed, was fixed to the wall. Twilight made to yank it off the wall and pulled himself off balance. Wild grinned and ducked his head as Twilight flailed a little. It was a relief to see that the hero wasn’t infallible to clumsiness.

“Ok, no light for us. Keep your guard up. Too many monsters like to hide in the dark,” said Twilight as he set off towards the torch in the distance.

Wild followed Twilight closely. In the dark he couldn’t trust what was left of his voice to alert Twilight to any danger. He’d have to be able to grab or push him out of the way of danger. It was, admittedly, not a great plan, but as much of one as he was going to have as Twilight began his walk forward.

The stone of the hallway echoed their footsteps as they walked. In the darkness it was slow going unless they wanted to find themselves stepping on some trap or through some hole. It really was different than anywhere Wild had been before. The closest he could think of was his brief attempt to infiltrate Hyrule Castle and rescue Zelda.

It had been quiet in there as well. The library echoed, but the hallways did not. And the monsters in there kept the place lit, albeit dimly. Wild shivered, remembering multiple guardians targeting him at once followed by the cool rush of Mipha’s grace swirling around him. He’d fled to Kakariko village as soon as he had opened his eyes. It wasn’t long after that he had run into the other Links, and that was only a few days ago.

They passed through hallways, turning down new branches at random. It wasn’t like they truly knew where they were going anyway. Wild itched to follow every path to the end, just to be sure they were not missing anything or anyone important, but let Twilight take the lead. After an hour or so the silence was wearing down on Wild like nothing else. He itched to see the sky, feel the wind, anything but the endless empty halls. When they reached the next torch he shyly tapped Twilight on the shoulder to get his attention.

“What is it?” asked Twilight, guard immediately up and eyes scanning for danger.

 _“Too quiet. Can you tell me about the other heroes? I don’t know them well, and it will pass the time,”_ signed Wild. He was ready for a no. Something tugged at the edge of his memory. _Don’t ask stupid questions. Suck it up and deal with it. Only the princess matters._ Nothing concrete, only flashes of emotions and forgotten voices. He still felt the surge of anxiety that came with a memory, despite nothing jumping into his head.

Twilight hummed thoughtfully. “I can try. Some of them are new to me too.”

_“You don’t have to. It was just an idea.”_

“No, it’s fine.”

They started for the next torch in the distance. Wild felt a little more at ease with Twilight’s voice filling the silence.

I’ve known Time the longest. For a while it was just the two of us. He taught me a lot of what I know with a sword and took care of me in those early days. I guess he’s kind of like a father figure, not just to me though. He tries to parent all of us. Sometimes its grating on the nerves and other times its nice…” Twilight trailed off for a moment before starting again.

“Four’s the most recent recruit besides yourself. He’s a blacksmith, can fix up weapons and armour cleanly. You know, now that I think of it, I’m pretty sure Four’s never handled the Master Sword, not even in his own adventure. I’ll have to ask him sometime.”

They passed beneath another torch. Wild was amused to note that Twilight talked with his hands, gesticulating into the darkness as they left the light.

“Then before Four we got Legend. He’s the one you… the one that you grabbed at knifepoint the other day,” says Twilight gingerly. Wild couldn’t read his expression in the dark but hid a wince anyway. “He can be a little overwhelming, but underneath all the snark and insults he’s a big softie. He also has a great collection of magic items.

“Wind’s our youngest, though my guess is not by much anymore now that you’re here. His Hyrule is amazing, it’s made up of islands. Wind travelled around with pirates for a time, and picked up some colourful curses. You’ll hear them in battle soon. They can get… creative.”

Twilight took a breath. As he did, Wild’s ears picked up something. A soft, scraping sort of sound. Like fingernails on stone. Immediately on guard, he reached for his Sheika Slate and materialized a sword. A flameblade sprang into his hand. Wild had forgotten he even had one in there. The two of them were cast into sudden light.

“Woah! Where’ve you been hiding that?” asked Twilight.

Wild just put a finger to his lips before bringing his hand to his ear to show he was listening. He waited, maybe the scraping sound had been his imagination. No, there it was again. A little louder this time. Twilight reacted as well, a hand going to the sword strapped at his back. The scraping started again and went for longer this time. It was odd, the sound wasn’t coming from in front or behind them. It was almost as if…

Wild looked up. Above Twilight, almost out of the flameblade’s light, there was something on the ceiling. Dark and spider-like though not any spider Wild recognized. It was large. Roughly the same size as a wolf. And it looked ready to drop down on Twilight.

So Wild did the only thing he could think of. Just as Twilight looked up himself, too late to do anything about the monster looming above him Wild lunged forward and gave Twilight a hard shove.

It worked. Twilight was knocked out of the way, stumbling back against the stone wall. Wild tried to dodge the thing as it fell, but it managed to catch him on the shoulder and knock him flat on his chest. The flameblade dropped from his hand and skittered across the stones to create harsh dancing shadows across the stones. Wild’s teeth banged together as his jaw hit stone, but the pain was only a fleeting thought in his head as whatever it was wrapped itself around him and began to pull him away.

Wild wrestled an arm free from the creature. As he did he could see it. It was a giant, disembodied hand, blueish-grey and each finger tipped with a claw-like nail. The fingers squeezed painfully as it lifted him off the ground. He reached desperately for something, some space to jam his fingers into so it couldn’t take him away. Instead his hand met another, warm and calloused. Twilight was there, gripping on to him.

“Don’t let go, Wild,” said Twilight with a grunt of effort as the hand creature gave a harsh yank on Wild.

Wild only nodded and locked his fingers in a death grip around Twilight’s wrist. He watched helplessly as Twilight used his other hand to draw his sword and take a swing at the creature. The second the blade met the hand creature its grip increased tenfold, nearly crushing Wild and burying its claws deep into his sides. It hurt. More than being battered by a blight Ganon or being struck by lightning. Wild couldn’t help the broken scream that rose from his throat, harsh and cracking through scarred vocal cords.

The creature couldn’t care less about the screams, and took the moment of Wild’s pain and the shock from Twilight to rip the two apart and zoom away into the depths of the dungeon. Wild only had a flash of Twilight’s face and his lingering cry of rage as he was dragged through the air by the hand creature. It moved surprisingly quickly. Torches whizzed by as Wild was taken further into the dungeon.

But his hand was free and he could try and reach his slate. He was not going to be some monster’s dinner in what wasn’t even his own Hyrule. He still had a world to save. And Zelda. Zelda was counting on him. She was the whole reason for his existence a hundred years ago, and the only reason he had woken up in the Shrine of Resurrection. He owed it to her to save Hyrule.

There! He could just reach his slate between two of the fingers. Luckily he could navigate the slate blindfolded, and quickly drew a sword and immediately brought it down into the soft spot between two fingers. The creature flinched, but did not let go. So what was Link to do but stab it again and again, grunting with the effort. Finally, with a cry, the creature dropped him and dissolved into black mist before disappearing.

Wild hit the ground with a heavy thud and took a moment to take stock. His chest hurt. Badly. He looked down to see four bloody punctures in his tunic, staining dark on the blue fabric. The nearest torch was still too far off to properly assess the damage though. For now, Wild probed one of the punctures with a finger. The hole in his side was about as big around as his finger, and he was willing to bet it was a couple inches deep at least with all the blood. Wild unclasped his cloak and pressed it against as many of the wounds as he could.

Now that the adrenaline was wearing off the pain came rushing in all at once. Groaning, Wild reached for his slate and flipped through it, looking for a hearty elixir or a quick meal he could eat to at least help with the worst of it. To Wild’s surprise, there were none in the slate’s inventory. He must have used them all in his attempt on the castle. He could’ve sworn he had more. It was the same with the food. He had plenty of ingredients, but only a couple baked apples on hand. Those he ate down slowly, jaw stiffening from its earlier meeting with the stone floor. Once finished, he pushed himself up to standing using the wall. This wasn’t the worst he had been through, his scars were proof enough of that. He could press forward and find the others. Wild took the first shaky footstep, then the next. As he made his was down the hallway he kept one hand on the wall for support, the other was firmly clamped down over his cloak, fingers slowly turning red with the blood that seeped through.

Wild continued like this even as lost track of how many turns he had taken, or how long he had been walking for. Both ears were straining for any sign of another monster ready to leap out at him. Luckily the only thing he could hear so far was his own heavy breathing and footsteps.

It was getting harder to keep his eyes open with each step. He wanted nothing more than to sink to the ground and curl up and sleep. The wounds ached and his ribs protested every breath, but Wild was determined. He could do this. He had to do this. The other heroes probably went through worse on their travels and they still managed to save their worlds on their first try. He had to match them.

Wild was so lost in thought he almost missed the soft noise coming from the hallway behind him. His ears twitched as they caught the sound of footsteps padding towards him. It wasn’t bipedal footsteps either. Something with four legs was bounding towards him. Wild knew he wouldn’t be able to put up a good fight, so he had to have the element of surprise. He leaned a shoulder onto the wall and drew his blade out once more and hid it against his body. He counted down the seconds to the new creature’s approach.

Three… two… one!

Wild turned and slashed with his sword, just missing the muzzle of the biggest wolf he had ever seen. It jumped back with a yelp into the shadows. Wild could only faintly see a strange marking in white between two glinting eyes in the darkness. Strangely, Wild heard no growling from the wolf, and it wasn’t lunging and snapping at him either. Every other wolf Wild had ever encountered either attacked or fled. This one stayed, watching. It crept forward again, keeping its head low and unthreatening as it inched forward.

This time Wild got a better look at it. It was the biggest wolf Wild had ever seen. Nearly the size of a pony with thick dark brown fur. Something metallic glinted around one of its front paws. Wild tensed as it approached, ready to strike, but the wolf simply whined and gave his had a quick lick. It then trotted a few steps towards the nearest torch before turning back to Wild, as if waiting for him. As Wild watched the wold he decided that he liked his Hyrule a lot better than wherever they were. Things made sense there. And there were no dungeons or strangely behaved wolves.

This time as he walked forward Wild slung his sword across his back. Faster to grab if the wold decided he was a tasty dinner after all.

The toe of his boot caught on a stone and mad Wild stumble. Just lifting his feet was proving to be a big effort. But instead of once again meeting the cold stone floor, Wild found himself gripping onto soft fur. The wolf had moved in front of him and kept him from falling. Wild righted himself and expected the wolf to move away but instead it stood next to him, close to his side. Wild wasn’t surprised to see that the wolf’s back was nearly level with his waist. What he was surprised by was how the wolf was offering support. With a tentative hand Wild reached down and put his hand on the soft fur of the wolf’s back. When he got no growl or bite he put a bit of weight down onto the wolf and walked forward.

When they reached the torch it felt like no time had passed while a whole age of the world had gone by. Wild’s legs felt like jelly and when he looked down to check the cloak that was balled against his side was shiny and wet with blood. He gritted his teeth. He had to keep going.

The wolf whined at Wild when he didn’t stop under the torch and stepped in front of him. Wild tried to walk around the wolf but every step was cut off.

 _“I have to find the others,”_ Wild signed at the wolf in some desperation it might understand him.

To his amazement, the wolf shook its head. It whined and gently bit onto Wild’s hand and dragged him over to the stone wall and then down. Wild sat heavily and leaned his head back against the cool stone. With a detached sort of resignation Wild recognized the fuzzy, heavy feeling sinking into his bones as he leaned against the wall. He was dying. Slower than anything he had experienced in a hundred years. Usually there was quick pain and then Mipha, then back on his feet. Now, this was slow. Maybe if the wolf let him keep going he could’ve found the others and gotten a hearty elixir or something. But now he would be delayed. And die. Again.

The wolf whined again, nosing at Wild’s wounds and the soaked cloak that was only barely being held against them at this point. Given their meeting, Wild found it strange that he wanted to comfort the wolf. He gave it a small smile and reached out to pat its head. The wold huffed, but didn’t shake off his hand. In fact, it did something rather strange. It ducked its head and hunched in on itself, trying to look smaller. Then Wild realised it was actually getting smaller, and the fur was receding into a green tunic and sandy blonde hair. In less than a minute Twilight was kneeling beside Wild in place of the wolf.

“Come on Wild, stay with me,” Twilight said as he put his own hand over Wild’s on the cloak and applied more pressure. Wild hissed with the pain that cut through the fog that was slowly starting to creep over his mind.

Twilight shuffled closer across the stones. The hand not occupied with trying to keep Wild’s blood on the inside was rooting through his pockets.

“Do you have any potions on you? Anything for healing?” asked Twilight, a desperate edge to his voice when the pocket hunt turned up empty.

Wild shook his head. _“It’s okay.”_

It was okay. He’d come back. It might take a little while to die, but he would come back. With four new shiny scars no less. He tried to convey the calm he was feeling to Twilight, the serene smile making its way back onto his face.

It didn’t work. Twilight’s face fell as he shifted so that his free hand was cushioning Wild’s head from the stone wall. It was a strange move to Wild. He’d stopped being able to feel the stones a few minutes ago.

“Look at me, Cub. Just keep breathing. The others… they’ll find us. We’ll get you a potion and you’ll be fine,” said Twilight in a strong voice. He lacked the conviction to make it convincing though. Wild wondered absently if Twilight had meant to give him a nickname.

Wild’s eyes were getting heavy. It wouldn’t be long now. At least he had someone with him as he slid slowly into the familiar abyss. He leaned into Twilight, taking what comfort he could from the other boy. He looked one more time up at Twilight’s face, then closed his eyes and slipped away.

“It was my pleasure,” echoed Mipha’s soft voice.

Wild felt himself being pulled out of that dark place and landing back in his body with a rush of feeling. Blinking his eyes open he caught the last trace of Mipha’s spectral form hanging over him before she vanished, leaving only the torchlight to light the hall.

Wild simply breathed for a moment, letting his body adjust to the pull of the fresh scars in his side.

“What in Hylia’s name…” whispered Twilight above him.

Wild was still being held by Twilight. In fact, he had apparently been gathered into Twilight’s arms, and if the tear tracks on his face were anything to go by, he’d been mourned. That was odd. No one should mourn for him. Not even a hundred years ago when he first fell did anyone cry. He’d just been a disappointment then, failing his duty and leaving the princess alone. So would anyone really judge him if maybe he stayed in Twilight’s hold until he let go.

“You’re alive!” said Twilight. “I don’t understand it, but oh I can’t say I’m not grateful.”

 _“I’m fine, all healed. That was Mipha. She’s a friend of mine,”_ signed Link as he pushed himself to his feet. His tunic clung to him with sticky, congealing blood. His poor cloak was absolutely disgusting at this point. He put the cloak into the slate and decided to deal with wearing the bloody tunic at least until they got somewhere he could change in private. He didn’t feel quite like showing off all of his scars just yet.

“Any other surprises you got? If this is going to be a repeat experience I might go grey before Time,” said Twilight as he stood next to Wild. “Are you really okay to keep going? Shouldn’t we wait for the others?”

Wild nodded. “I’m fine now. I promise. And don’t tell the others about Mipha? I know they’ll ask questions, and I don’t think I can answer them right now.”

“As long as you don’t tell them about the whole wolf-transformation thing. Time knows, and I think Legend suspects something’s up. But like Mipha, I’m not ready to talk about it,” Twilight said sadly.

Keeping secrets was something Wild had experience in. He nodded to Twilight and tried to convey his seriousness with the motion.

“Good. I guess we keep going then.”

Twilight turned to go, but was stopped by Wild’s hand on his arm.

 _“When I was dying you called me Cub. Why?”_ asked Wild.

“I did?” said Twilight.

_“Yes.”_

“I don’t remember doing that. Sure you didn’t just imagine it?” asked Twilight. Wild would have thought that he had perhaps imagined the nickname if not for the slowly curling corner of Twilight’s lips. He was being teased.

 _“Tell me,”_ signed Wild.

“I don’t think I will. Come on then, Wild. This dungeon isn’t going to solve itself,” said Twilight, trotting off into the darkness.

Wild followed a second behind. There was something enjoyable about the teasing. A sense of belonging. He liked Twilight. And if one of Twilight’s hands wrapped around his wrist in the dark to make sure he was still there then Wild wasn’t going to say anything about it.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope y'all are staying safe and reading lots of fic while we're facing isolation with COVID-19. I'll hopefully be writing fic to keep myself and you all entertained. 
> 
> If you're curious, i had it in my brain the whole time that they were in hyrule's hyrule.


End file.
